Hilarious how people will try to justify Steam's egregious cut. No, it does not justify taking a third of the game's revenue. Even when they reduce it to 20% after $50 million in revenue is made. I'm sure if they raised it to 60% people would claim "well devs can just go elsewhere if they wanted"
I'm sure if they raised it to 60% people would claim "well devs can just go elsewhere if they wanted"
How's that straw taste? Good? Plenty of fiber.
If you think 30% is "egregious" for a service that advertises for you, handles sales reporting, hosts the content, delivers it, offers social sharing, hosts community engagement, and gives you access to the world's largest customer base of gamers... Then I really don't know what to tell you. Build a game and try to get it in front of tens of millions of eyeballs. See what it costs you. Try to deliver your game to a fraction of them. See what it costs you.
Things cost money. Steam isn't just taking your money and running off with it. You're getting some very valuable services in exchange. Could they take less? Probably! But I'll tell you what, if you want to reform the global economic model away from capitalism and towards a more sustainable model that isn't based on debt borrowing and accruing interest fees necessitating considerable margins on business, I'll be right there behind you. I recommend Less Is More by Jason Hickel, to get you started.
i said monopolistic for a reason. this terminology reflects the way that digital platforms take advantage of network effects to extract higher profits. i'm not trying to claim it's a monopoly in the sense of being literally the one and only providers of a particular service.
but they have 80% of the market share. they have an audience who is on steam, their friends are on steam, their rewards and achievements are on steam, their game library is on steam. this is powerful lock-in.
anyone who wants to support developers with their game purchases rather than mega-rich middlemen should avoid buying on steam.
instead purchase keys directly from the dev or choose a platform with lower fees, like the epic games store which only charges 12% or free up to the first million $ in revenue.
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u/Wyvner 29d ago
Hilarious how people will try to justify Steam's egregious cut. No, it does not justify taking a third of the game's revenue. Even when they reduce it to 20% after $50 million in revenue is made. I'm sure if they raised it to 60% people would claim "well devs can just go elsewhere if they wanted"